


And I Wake Up Alone

by AnonymouslyDead



Series: I try Nygmobblepot Week 2018 [3]
Category: Gotham - Fandom
Genre: Drug Use, Hallunication!Riddler, Hurt/Comfort, I think it counts as nygmob, M/M, Nygmobblepot Week 2018, and all that hallucination nasties, hallucination!Oswald, season 4
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-21
Updated: 2018-03-21
Packaged: 2019-04-05 09:35:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 783
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14041356
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnonymouslyDead/pseuds/AnonymouslyDead
Summary: When Riddler gets too much, Edward tries to replace him with a lesser evil.





	And I Wake Up Alone

“SHUTUPSHUTUPSHUTUP!” Edward screamed, grabbing his already disheveled hair. “I am in control! Me! Edward Nygma!”

Riddler let out a chuckle. He practically guided forward, smiling like a shark. “Not for much longer. Face it, Eddie. You’re not looking too good.” 

“Get away from me!” Edward backed away from the grinning apparition until his back hit Lee’s medicine cabinets. 

Riddler was now full on laughing. “You’re a mess. Just look at yourself! You’re fumbling around like an idiot over a figment of your own imagination!” 

“I said shut up!” Edward turned his back to Riddler and started fumbling through the various prescription bottles littering it’s top.

Edward heard a tsk tsk from behind him. “Don’t you know when to quit?” 

Edward made an angry noise and threw down the bottles in his hands. Where the heck was it? He ripped open the overhead cabinets and shifted through the sparse bottles. 

“You can’t keep this up forever. Eventually, we’ll be me again. Why not just give up now?” 

“No! I won’t let you hurt anyone else I care about!” Edward bit back. He let out a sigh of relief when he finally pulled out the pill bottle he was looking for, relieved that Lee hadn’t found them yet. Hiding in plain sight wasn’t a saying for nothing. At least, he hoped so.

He twisted open the top and poured out a pair of familiar white pills. He quickly popped them in his mouth and forced them down his throat. 

Riddler sighed. “It’s come to this again? Pathetic. I’ll be back soon enough.”

Edward ignored him. Instead, he stared down at his watch, watching as the time tick down until the ten minutes until the pills finally took affect-

“Hello, old friend.” The familiar clock of a cane replaced the stomp of Riddler’s boots. 

Edward let out relieved groan. His knees buckled under him. He let his back slide against the old cabinets until he was sitting on the concrete floor.

“You don’t look so good, Ed.” Oswald was sitting next to him, his bad leg stretched out in front of him next to his cane. His face was right out of his memory, a kind of desperate concern from when Edward thought the man actually cared about him. 

Edward should hate him, and he certainly does. The man has betrayed him far too much not to. But times like this, anything was better than the monster inside him. 

Frustrated tears welled up in his eyes at the thought of it. Soon, the pills will wear off, and he’d be left alone again with Him. 

“Oh, Ed.” Edward heard. He didn’t it so much as think it. And as he looked at Oswald, he found he was right. Oswald had his arm around him, his mind’s way of trying to console him. 

Edward let the tears fall as his breath hitched. He could remember all the times Oswald had his arms around him, how good he felt to finally have someone that really truly cared for him. How safe he felt to have someone looking out for him. 

He’d never feel that again from Oswald, but that didn’t stop Edward leaned into the imaginary touch, trying to will that feeling back into existence. It worked somewhat. Soon, the tears stopped, and his mind felt numb from exhaustion. 

“You should rest.” Oswald said.

“When I wake up, he’ll be back though. He’ll just keep coming back until he takes everything from me. What am I going to do?” 

Oswald just gave a lost look, the same look he always gave when Edward’s mind couldn’t provide an answer. 

Oswald shook his head. “I don’t know friend. I really wish I did, but you should rest now. If you keep going like this, things will just get worse.” 

Edward nodded. He had a point. 

“Will you stay with me?” Edward’s voice sounded so small and weak. If he wasn’t so exhausted, he’d never live it down. 

Oswald just gave a small smile. “Of course, my friend.” 

Edward pulled himself to his feet and made his way towards what passed for his bed. Oswald was already waiting, sitting on the edge with his cane resting next to him. 

Edward removed his glasses and set them aside before climbing into bed. 

A low humming filled his ear. A familiar tune from a song. How did it go again?

“...soaked in soul, he swims in my eyes by the bed. He floods me with dread.” Oswald supplied for him, slow and gentle like a lullaby. “Pour myself over him, moon spilling in...”

Edward relaxed for the first time in who knows. Sleep quickly cane to take him. 

“And I wake up alone.” 


End file.
